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Page 210 - But even the method he then used was entirely unfitted to give answers to the questions which meteorologists were asking. Some of those questions were stated in circulars issued by the joint committee of the American Philosophical Society and the Franklin Institute...

Page 501 - Sunday, about one o'clock in the night, when flames of fire were seen between the hot baths and Tripergola. In a short time the fire increased to such a degree that it burst open the earth in this place, and threw up so great a quantity of ashes and pumicestones, mixed with water, as covered the whole country. The next morning...

Page 166 - Thus proving beyond a doubt, that in land-spouts the wind blows towards the centre of the spout. How is it at sea? In several great storms in the United States, of several hundred miles in diameter, which have been investigated with great care by the Joint Committee of the American Philosophical Society and the Franklin Institute...

Page 236 - ... above the horizon, and disappeared almost in a moment ; then in the same time made its appearance, and in five seconds was broken, and spread as far as the eye could see : from this time to midnight, blowing a most violent hurricane, with a must awful cross sea breaking constantly on board fore and aft, carrying away bulwarks, boats, cook-house, &c., in fact, everything clear with the deck, except stanchions.

Page 63 - ... of a true theory) what would be the phenomena, on the supposition that there is a horizontal whirlwind, say of one hundred miles in diameter, moving with a velocity of seventy-five miles an hour, or 110 feet per second. It is demonstrated in mechanics that if a body moves in a circle, with a radius of sixteen feet, and a velocity of sixteen feet per second, its centrifugal force will be equal to its gravity. And as centrifugal force is directly as the square of the velocity, and inversely as...

Page viii - As these columns rise, their upper parts will come under less pressure, and the air will therefore expand ; as it expands, it will grow colder about one degree and a quarter for every hundred yards of its ascent, as...

Page xiv - The commencement of up-moving columns in the morning, will be attended with an increase of wind, and its force will increase with the increasing columns ; both keeping pace with the increasing temperature. This increase of wind is produced partly by the rush of air on all sides at the surface of the earth towards the centre of the ascending columns, producing fitful breezes; and partly by the depression of air all...

Page 501 - Puzzuoli quitted their habitations in terror, covered with the muddy and black shower which continued the whole day in that country, — flying from death, but with death painted in their countenances. Some with their children in their arms, some with sacks full of their goods, others leading an ass, loaded with their frightened family, towards Naples...

Page 385 - June, two months before the fatal avalanche, there was one not far from the Willey house, which so far alarmed the family, that they erected an encampment a little distance from their dwelling, intending it as a place of refuge. On the fatal night it was impenetrably dark, and frightfully tempestuous ; the lonely family had retired to rest, in their humble dwelling, six miles from the nearest human creature.